Andrew Liszewski

It's not like they were going anywhere, but it's kind of surprising to see the same kind of gesture and swipe controls you use on your smartphone now being integrated into something as simple as an LED flashlight.

Inova's $12 Microlight STS features a touch sensitive area just below the LED bulb that lets you turn it on and cycle through its various modes by swiping your finger from right to left, or left to right to turn it off.

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At full capacity the LED blasts 16 lumens of light, but since that means the battery will be dead in nine hours you can also switch to a less-intense two lumen mode that boosts the battery to life to 64 hours. You can also just dial in any level of brightness you want, or switch to a strobe mode if you need to get someone's attention in an emergency. [Inova via bookofjoe]